


as a scream

by respoftw



Series: 35 Ways To Say I Love You In The Pegasus Galaxy [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 12:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7758730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ways to say I Love You #3: As a Scream</p>
            </blockquote>





	as a scream

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, who thought I'd do an angsty fic for this one? Well, you were wrong!

The Wraith were defeated, the Replicators were gone and life on Atlantis had finally settled into a relatively peaceful affair. Rodney could finally concentrate on getting all of her systems operating efficiently and effectively without having to deal with life or death situations every week. For too long, his life had felt like a syndicated TV show: tune in on Fridays at 8pm central to find out if our plucky group of soldiers and scientists have managed to stay alive for another week.

With the big threats eliminated Rodney could focus on the science, the research, all the reasons he had volunteered for the mission in the first place. More than that, the newfound peace had spurred the IOA to give the all clear for colonisation. With a full compliment of ZPMs, the foot traffic back and forth between Earth and New Lantea was easier than ever. Larger living quarters were opened up in the city and families came to live with the loved ones that they had almost given up on ever seeing again. Even better - to Rodney's mind anyway - was the lifting of the ban on pets. After six years and an agonising three week quarantine in the newly designated animal control centre in the West tower, Rodney was reunited with his cat. Galli made him work to win his love back, not quite willing to forgive and forget the six years spent in the care of someone whose only qualification for being a surrogate caregiver was their measurements, but after introducing Gallileo to the Pegasus equivalent of mice (which were 50% bigger than their Earth counterparts and wily enough to give Gallileo a run for his money), Rodney was back in the good books and allowed the honour of giving him a belly rub every night.

It should have been perfect.

It wasn't.

All because John Sheppard was bored.

John had been as relieved and grateful for the rest as anyone else in Atlantis after the final battle.  He and Rodney had enjoyed weeks of lazy mornings spent curled around each other without having to keep one ear open for the radio at all times, finally able to relax without knowing exactly where their shoes were for when they inevitably were called into action to avert the latest crisis.

As the weeks of normalcy - or what used to pass as normalcy before Rodney had asked John to imagine where he was in the solar system - passed, Rodney could slowly start to see the reality of their new life in Atlantis hit John.

John had never been one of _those_ soldiers. The ones that needed a war to fight like they needed air to breathe. Rodney certainly wouldn't have been with John, wouldn't have been doing whatever the hell they were doing with each other, if that was the case. He didn't know exactly what he and John were to each other. Friends, definitely; but between John's pathological inability to talk about his feelings and Rodney's reluctance to ask and find out that they were just friends who shared a bed most nights, it wasn't entirely clear if they were more than that. Not that the uncertainty of their relationship made it any easier for Rodney to watch John slowly climb the walls out of boredom.

John might not have needed a war, not like those other soldiers that had slowly trickled their way back to Earth once the dust settled did, but it was clear that he needed _something_ more than this.

Rodney didn't blame him, if he pictured himself in a position where the most important scientific decision he made in a day was approving the lab rota he knew that he would be going just as stir crazy as John was.

Teyla's suggestion that Rodney try encouraging John to meditate was about as useful as Ronon's lewd remark that Rodney must not be keeping John as "occupied" as he could be. In hindsight, loudly asserting that he kept John as occupied as two men on the wrong side of forty could manage was not the best of ideas but Ronon always had been able to niggle him into a reaction better then anyone except for John.

In the end, it was Jeannie who had inadvertently given him the inspiration to get John out of his funk. The weekly intergalactic Skype calls between him and Jeannie were either one of the perks of peace or one of the few downsides, depending on what mood Rodney was in. After an awkward conversation with Madison who had seemed to have learned about "alternate lifestyles" such as her Uncle Mer's in school that week and listening to Jeannie complain about Kaleb's early mid-life crisis obsession with hiking, Rodney was ready to class it as a downside this week until Jeannie's ramblings sparked an idea on how to maybe boost John's spirits.

Despite being past due, Rodney knew that John was not having a midlife crisis. He's not even really sure what a mid life crisis would look like on John Sheppard; a man who already surfed and skateboarded and played guitar and got a semi at any machine that had the capability to go faster than 100mph. John was a thrill seeker, much as he tried to project the laid back, easygoing aura, Rodney knew that John never felt more alive than when he was living on the edge.

It was one of his least favourite things about John but it was also one of his defining charactistics, one of the things that made John who he was so Rodney bit down on his personal distaste and ushered John into Jumper One with little explanation.

Rodney had gotten better at flying the jumpers in the past few years so John only made a minimal amount of grumbling when Rodney insisted on flying the jumper to the mainland himself. As they reached the spot on the mainland that all of Rodney's research had shown to be the perfect spot, Rodney set the controls for autopilot, reached into the storage compartment and tossed his latest purchase to John.

John's grin was blinding. "A parachute?" he exclaimed.

The excited way that John was bouncing on his heels brought a smile to Rodney's face.

"Yes, well detected, Sherlock," he said, utterly failing to keep the pleased tone out of his voice. "Now, go and throw yourself out of the jumper, I'll meet you on the ground, we'll have some food and then there's a waterfall an hour east that apparently only the bravest of the Athosians will cliff dive off of."

John made short shrift of buckling himself into the harness and was practically vibrating with excitement as he struggled to keep still while Rodney insisted on triple checking the set up.

Finally satisfied, he pressed the release that opened the rear door do the jumper and as the roar of the wind reached them, he was happy to see that John looked more alive than he had in months.

"Go on, be an idiot," Rodney nodded his head at the open door and John paused just long enough to kiss him, wet and sloppy and filled with gratitude.

"Thank you for this," John said, just loud enough to be heard as he rested his forehead briefly against Rodney's own.

Embarrassed, Rodney tried to shrug it off. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Now get, unless you want me to throw you out."

With a whooping laugh, the real one that made John sound like a dying hyena, John gave Rodney another sloppy kiss and then launched himself out the back of the jumper with a scream of delight.

Rodney rushed towards the HUD and pulled up the display to track John's descent. John's yells of excitement rang in Rodney's ear, the roar of displaced air and John's delight coming in loud and clear over the radio.

"This is amazing!" John yelled, whooping once again. Rodney watched his descent with a mixture of pride and fear, seeing the distance between John and the ground disappear with every passing second and was just about to interrupt the fun and insist that he opened his damn 'chute now when John screamed one last whoop and, loud as bells, clear as day, screamed four words out into the air.

"I LOVE YOU RODNEY!"

The grin that split Rodney's face was wide enough that his cheeks would actually hurt later.

 _Now_ it was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](http://buffycuddlespigs.tumblr.com) i


End file.
